January 15, 2014
If you are a quilter or quilt artist, when you hear about kaleidoscopes, you automatically think – Paula Nadelstern. Paula has taken the magical qualities of the ever-changing and shifting dance of colors created by kaleidoscopes and translated this visual excitement into fabric, both in her art quilts and in her fabric designs for Benartex, Inc.
Paula is the author several excellent books: Kaleidoscopes & Quilts, Snowflakes & Quilts, Puzzle Quilts: Simple Blocks, Complex Fabric, Paula Nadelstern’s Kaleidoscope Quilts: An Artist’s Journey Continues and Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Workbook. It is easy to see why she is such a popular teacher. Paula will be teaching a 5-day/6-night workshop with us this Spring: March 16 – 22, 2014. (There are still a few space left in this class.)
Paula is currently very busy designing a new line fabric for Benartex, but she graciously took some time out to answer our interview questions.
How long have you been teaching?
I’ve been teaching about 20 years.
What is your favorite part about teaching?
It’s not until you teach something to someone that you understand it really well. Breaking down your own creative act, first by identifying your personal strategies, and then by dividing them into a sequence of steps, forces you to reflect on what things aren’t, as well as what they are. This exploration steers you in lots of valuable directions. It leads you to the vocabulary needed to articulate your private visual language. It helps you recognize the kinds of mistakes students are likely to make and head them off at the pass. And it awakens new ideas, pushing you, the artist, further along your creative path.
What would you tell your prospective students are three best reasons for taking a workshop?
The new view offered in a good workshop is a creative springboard, leading not to imitation but to experimentation. Taking a class from someone who has a strong personal aesthetic is a short cut to new skills.
A longer workshop provides the time for both process and product and for setbacks — which often turn out to be the take-aways, the lessons that occur when a misstep needs to be fixed. Guided error correction cements and integrates skills, making processes even richer and layered. In a longer format, the instructor doesn’t need to oversimplify the process.
Consider the time and space to create among like-minded peers a rare gift to be much appreciated. Seeing what and how the others working alongside you create is almost as good as making it yourself.
What are you currently working on in your own art?
I’m about to start the thirty-ninth quilt in my Kaleidoscopic series. I have a vague idea about a kaleidoscopic image with seams showing on the front. My just finished quilt, KALEIDOSCOPIC XXXVIII: Millifiori, 82“ x 82“ , (shown at the top of this article) is my first quilt using only fabric from collections I’ve designed for Benartex and the first one quilted by me on a long arm machine courtesy of APQS. (editor’s note: We had the chance to see Paula in action at the APQS booth during the Houston International Quilt Market this past October. The quilt is magnificent in person!)
I’m working on the 14th fabric collection for Benartex. Two collections recently premiered, called PALINDROMES and METALLICA.
Where is your art currently being exhibited?
I’m currently involved in two group tours.
1. I’ve been a member of the Manhattan Quilters Guild for close to thirty years. It’s an eclectic group of professional fiber artists who meet in New York City. Every few years we challenge members to create a 36” square quilt exploring a theme. The current exhibition is titled MATERIAL WITNESSES. Link to our website and learn more about the guild and see our current and past exhibitions.
2. Semper Tedium: The Slow Art of Quilting featuring quilts by Paula Nadelstern, Amy Orr, Robin Schwalb and Katherine Knauer, will be mounted at the Texas Quilt Museum, January 9-April 1, 2014. Here is our manifesto:
Semper Tedium revels in process, rejoices in community and celebrates artwork created in “as much time as it takes.” Working separately in urban spaces throughout the year, the four quilt artists in this exhibit have met twice a year for the past decade. These cherished artist retreats reinforce shared dedication to integrity of construction and pursuit of unique personal visions in spite of societal pressure to work faster and produce more.
The tongue-in-cheek phrase Semper Tedium celebrates the ritualistic act of creation for its own sake, a laborious and satisfying process. Often heard comments such as “How long did it take?” or “My, you must be so patient” imply that anyone with time on their hands could make similarly accomplished works if so inclined. This point of view overlooks the skill, artistry and dedication necessary to realize any maker’s unique vision and subtly diminishes the status of quiltmaking.
Do you sell you work?
No, I rarely sell my work, keeping it as a body of work for exhibition.
What is your favorite art quote?
I heard a quote by the patriarch of the Flying Wallenda family. Essentially he said: “To be on the high wire is to be alive, everything else is waiting.” After months filled with the business of quiltmaking, the moment comes when I step onto my figurative tightrope, setting in motion an act balanced between me, my fabric and my technique. The real world hushes and blurs in the background while I wend my way alone, sometimes wobbling and scared that I won’t make it, somehow regaining equilibrium. At last, the waiting is over.
Describe your studio
I make my quilts on the same block in the Bronx where I grew up. We are three generations living within a block of each other on this most northern NYC street: my daughter, my mother-in-law, my husband and me. For over twenty-five years, my workspace in our ninth floor, two-bedroom, cram-packed-with-fabric-and-sewing-stuff apartment was the forty-two-inch round kitchen table. Today I work in a 15- by 10-foot studio revamped from my daughter’s former bedroom. Picture ceiling-high cupboards stuffed with fabric, drawers overflowing with the paraphernalia quilters collect, six feet of design wall, and a Bernina ready to go on a 4 by 6-foot counter.
Name five of your “can’t do without” tools/products
- Visigrid Non-Glare See-Through Template Sheets
- Faber Castell Black Permanent Fine Pointed Pen
- LED Sewing Machine Light
- Knee lift and needle down for sewing machine
- Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Scissors Medium 6″
Thanks so much for posting this interview. Very inspiring.